Nintendo won’t let game characters be gay

This photo provided by Nintendo shows a screenshot from the video game, "Tomodachi Life." The gaming company said Tuesday, May 6, 2014, it wouldn't bow to pressure to allow players to engage in romantic entanglements with characters of the same sex in the English version of "Tomodachi Life" following a social media campaign launched last month seeking virtual equality for the game's characters, which are modeled after real people.

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The Japanese publisher of “The Legend of Zelda” and “Super Mario Bros.” isn’t allowing gamers to play as gay characters in upcoming English editions of “Tomodachi Life,” The Associated Press reports.

Following a campaign launched by fans seeking virtual equality for the game’s characters, which are modeled after real people, on Tuesday the company said it wouldn’t bow to pressure to allow players of the life-simulator game to engage in romantic activities with characters of the same sex.

“Nintendo never intended to make any form of social commentary with the launch of ‘Tomodachi Life,’” Nintendo of America Inc. said in a statement. “The relationship options in the game represent a playful alternate world rather than a real-life simulation. We hope that all of our fans will see that ‘Tomodachi Life’ was intended to be a whimsical and quirky game.”

Yet the package for the game, which has sold 2 million copies in Japan, says, “Your friends. Your drama. Your life.”

Tye Marini, a gay 23-year-old Nintendo fan from Mesa, Ariz., launched the campaign last month urging Nintendo to add same-sex relationship options to English versions of the game.

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